This Week at Our House

1.  Ruth made a New Years Resolution to take her grades seriously. She has brought a lot of her grades up since the new year and is spending more time studying. (Her grades were not bad. She has made up her mind to go for that 4.0) Ruth is not happy with her part in the school musical, Annie, because she is an orphan and not in with her friends who are all servants and street people. This week we realized that Ruth will be 30 before Arwen can date. That made Ruth feel old, even though she can't date yet. 
2. Kate as ever is my right hand man. I will miss her a ton when she goes back to school in August. Kate is enjoying her part as an orphan in the school musical and is making friends in her grade. Yay! I didn't want to send her to school all alone feeling like she doesn't know anyone. Because Kate home schools she never goes to bed. Kate gets upset if I send her to bed before 11:30! I doubt that will change next year when she has to wake up early. I think she will just start taking naps.
3. Johnny is just Johnny. He is as smart as ever and yet still always trying to get out of his school work. Johnny makes me happy because he is always willing to play with the little kids. It melts my heart to see him sitting with a book or laptop and holding baby Arwen. Those little moments are some of the best parts of big families. Johnny has also become to the self appointed bedtime police officer. He makes a point to get out of bed and tell Kate what time it is and that she should be in bed too.
4. Adam has spent this last week either on the wii or tormenting Rachel and Anya. Yesterday. Anya was playing on starfall on a laptop that has the usb plug of a wireless mouse plugged in. Adam got the mouse, hid and started using it to annoy Anya. I heard Anya yelling at Adam to stop it. I told Anya to quit it because Adam wasn't anywhere near her. After some more screams, Anya finally said, "The mouse". Then I knew what the little stinker was up to. He is really, really good at bugging his sisters.
5. Rachel is my little social butterfly. She loves school. She loves having friends over. She can talk your ears off. Rachel has been back to the endocrinologist and has grown an amazing 2 inches in four months. Last year, she only grew 2 inches total.That is good news. Rachel is 6yrs and 9months and weighs 33 pounds. She is always worried that she is fat-- CRAZY! So, I tell her to eat right and exercise. But, honestly, what does eating right mean for a 6 year old who is seeing a specialist for lack of growth?
6. Anya, had her 5th birthday! Anya is adorable as ever. Anya likes her presents quite a bit and has asked me to spend a lot of time with her coloring and helping her with her sticker book. Anya is making leaps and bounds in learning all of her preschool stuff which is a relief to me. Anya, from the suggestion of Rachel, has decided she wants to go to kindergarten at school instead of doing it at home with me. We will see. I kind of feel like she will have her whole life to leave home and socialize. I may regret it if I give in and send her away before I feel ready.  I will consider it. There is a lot of social pressure to send your kids to pre-school and I am thinking of keeping her home for kindergarten.
7. Joseph is funny. Joseph isn't quite 3.5, but he is very articulate. Because he talks so much and expresses himself more like a 5 year old, I tend to expect more out of him-- better behavior, better at cleaning up, etc. I have to remind myself that he is already doing more chore wise than most of his siblings did at 3. I guess that makes him a pretty mature little guy, even though I feel like, "kid, you are too old to whine and cry. Oh yeah" He skipped the terrible twos and opted for the terrible threes. Most of the stuff he says comes out in a high pitched whine -- ick.
8. Joshua is talking!!!! Did I really type that. He has been babbling at us forever. In less than a month that babble has turned into sentences. I had him tested for speech. He started talking that day. Every time the kid opens his mouth, we are all astonished. "Did Josh just say that?"He will turn 2 on Thursday. I wonder if he will opt for terrible 2 or terrible 3?
9. Arwen has two teeth! That would make her the youngest of my kids to pop their first teeth. She is about 5.5 months. She likes toys and will play happily on the floor if she has some toys to hold. If no toys can be found, Arwen will be happy with just a piece of paper to crumple. Arwen is a sweet, calm, really amazingly easy going, good sleeping, excellent nursing, big smiling, perfect little ball of sunshine. What would I do without my amazing number 9!
   
   

   This Weeks Pictures

   

   Rachel singing along with her Brave CD.

   
   

   

    The sign Kate taped to our door to tell Jer and Rosanne not to bother knocking
   

   

   Ruth studying and Johnny doing anything but studying

   
   

   

   We got his kitten in October when we noticed our cat disappeared. She hasn't adapted to our home and I have decided with our cat loss we need to just have indoor cats and she has been miserable. So I gave her to a family with one teenage son. I think she will be much happier. The surprising thing is not one of my kids thought we should keep her. All of them said, she will be happier in a different family. We are now owners of one indoor orange fluffy boy cat named Kedo. I think we will just keep it that way for a while.